In the food processing industry tables are commonly constructed of stainless steel to render them sanitary. These tables commonly have one or more tops or shelves that are supported by four or more upright legs. The legs are usually of tubular construction and are secured beside or to the bottom of the shelves by leg mounting sockets.
Heretofore, as exemplified by those sold by Kason Industries, Inc. of Shenandoah, Ga., these sockets have been in the form of stainless tubes or shells which have a lower end flared inwardly and an upper end flared outwardly. The lower end is flared inwardly to provide a smooth, continued bottom lip to inhibit fluids from collecting there. By flaring and rounding the end of the socket, liquids will flow easily from the bottom of the socket directly onto the table leg and thereby provide for good drainage. By flaring the upper end of the socket outwardly, an annular flange is created that can be welded to the bottom of a table top. For mounting legs beside a shelf, both ends of the socket are inwardly flared.
Though inwardly flaring or tapering the bottom end of table leg sockets solves one problem, it does create another. Specifically, it causes the inside diameter of the bottom of the socket to be smaller than the remainder of the socket. Were this condition to be left in tact, a cylindrical leg would tend to wobble about within the socket. To avoid this from occurring, a mild steel inner liner has had to be inserted snuggly inside the socket shell to provide a leg engaging surface of the same diameter as that of the inturned bottom end. As a result, most of the leg mounted within the socket is in snug engagement with the socket so that it is not free to wobble or to assume a canted angle with respect to the socket shell.
Though leg sockets of the type just described have functioned well with the inclusion of the mild steel liner, the liner has served to maintain the cost of manufacturing these type of leg sockets relatively high. In addition, the presence of the liner has rendered the sockets relatively heavy and has created the potential for rust bleed-outs to occur. Plastic liners have been tried as a substitute for the more expensive and heavy, mild steel liner. They, however, have failed to provide lasting rigidity sufficient to prevent leg canting from occurring.
If a leg mounting socket of the type having an inwardly flared end could be deviced which did not require the presence of an inner liner to maintain a leg centered and in secure gripping engagement within the socket, a distinct advance in the art would be achieved. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention to primarily directed.